Procrastinators Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from chronic procrastination.
Nugget of wisdom
A few years ago, my husband and I stayed at a beautiful bed & breakfast on an acreage. One morning at breakfast, the elderly father of one of our hosts was talking about what gardening he would do that day. I asked how he knew where to start on a property that large. He answered that he worked on "what bothered him most".
What a great little piece of advice for when you feel overwhelmed by the amount that needs to be done and you have no idea where to start and are tempted to do other things instead. Because no matter how much you accomplish, if you don't get around to doing the thing that was bugging you, you still won't have that feeling of accomplishment and it will continuously nag at you.
I've tried applying this to my own life. For example, when I feel overwhelmed by all the weeding and fertilizing and pruning that needs to be done all at once (in my little suburban-sized yard!), I try to pick one thing that's bugging me most and start with that. Unfortunately, I often forget to apply this in other areas of my life, but I think it's so useful. It may be similar to other concepts we've all heard or read about before, but I love the simpleness of the way he said it.
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what to do first
Doing "what bothers you the most" is essentially prioritizing tasks in order of importance. I have trouble figuring out what's most important - this is a good touchstone.
Another common approach I've head is to do the most dreaded task first. You see that in anti-procrastination books a lot.